The Worst President--The Story of James Buchanan

by Garry Boulard

"

Just 24 hours after former President James Buchanan died on June 1, 1868, the Chicago Tribune rejoiced: “This desolate old man has gone to his grave. No son or daughter is doomed to acknowledge an ancestry from him.”

Nearly a century and a half later, in 2004, writer Christopher Buckley observed “It is probably just as well that James Buchanan was our only bachelor president. There are no descendants bracing every morning on opening the paper to find another heading announcing: ‘Buchanan Once Again Rated Worst President in History.’”

How to explain such remarkably consistent historical views of the man who turned over a divided and demoralized country to Abraham Lincoln, the same man regarded through the decades by presidential scholars as the worst president in U.S. history?

In this exploration of the presidency of James Buchanan, 1857-61, Garry Boulard revisits the 15th President and comes away with a stunning conclusion: Buchanan’s performance as the nation’s chief executive was even more deplorable and sordid than scholars generally know, making his status as the country’s worst president richly deserved.

Boulard documents Buchanan’s failure to stand up to the slaveholding interests of the South, his indecisiveness in dealing with the secession movement, and his inability to provide leadership during the nation’s gravest constitutional crisis.

Using the letters of Buchanan, as well as those of more than two dozen political leaders and thinkers of the time, Boulard presents a narrative of a timid and vacillating president whose drift and isolation opened the door to the Civil War.

The author of The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce: The Story of a President and the Civil War (iUniverse, 2006), Boulard has reported for the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and is a business writer for the Albuquerque-based Construction Reporter.

"

Genres: Presidents, Biography, History, American History, Nonfiction, Us Presidents

204 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 14, 2015

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Constitution provided against every possible vacancy in the office of the President, but did not provide for utter imbecility.” — Rep. John Sherman

James Buchanan’s place in history as the worst American president ended after 156 years in 2017. On paper, arguably no president in history had as impressive a resumé than Buchanan on entering office: the House of Representatives for 10 years, Andrew Jackson’s minister to Russia, 10 years as a senator from Pennsylvania, James K. Polk’s Secretary of State, and Franklin Pierce’s minister to the United Kingdom. But it was all on paper. He left no mark in the House, Senate, or his ministry postings and, as Polk expanded American territory to include almost all of the present-day lower 48 states, he was tolerated by the president as a minor nuisance. Nevertheless, he was elected president in large part because his opposition was divided by the remnants of the Whig Party, a nativist Know Nothing party which knew it was against Catholics and just about everyone who was an immigrant, and a young Republican Party fielding its very first candidate.

He was slavery’s best friend among Northern political figures. He did little-to-nothing to even acknowledge the events leading to civil war, much less do anything about them. The one thing he did well was throw parties, something that didn’t quell any rumors of the only bachelor president of being either homosexual or asexual. And those are the only trivial footnotes most know about him at all. The time of his presidency is remembered more for John Brown in Bloody Kansas and Harper’s Ferry than anything positive his administration did.

In the period between Abraham Lincoln’s election and assumption of office, Buchanan declared, “The framers of the national government never intended to implant in its bosoms the seeds of its own destruction, no were they guilty of the absurdity of providing for its own dissolution.” But instead of decisive actions backing his words, he vacillated, let his Southern allies off the hook, and wouldn’t use the power of the federal government to maintain and protect the Union. He equivocated as the nation was falling apart, causing the New York Times to comment, after South Carolina seceded, “The country has to struggle through three more months of this disgraceful imbecility and disloyalty to the Constitution.”

Buchanan returned to his Pennsylvania home and nation seemed not to care when he died in 1868. The Cincinnati Daily Gazette declared that “Imbecility–to use no harsher term–was enthroned at the White House” while he was there. The Chicago Tribune found one saving grace, “He never had a guiding principle…This desolate old man has gone to his grave. No son or daughter is doomed to acknowledge ancestry from him.” And I guess that’s another reason the 45th president will linger at the bottom of the list of presidents, hopefully forever. He left us with a brood and cult that will ensure that his malignancy will still be with us, however long it may unfortunately be. At least Buchanan didn’t do that, which, comparatively speaking, is something!

[Brian Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is one of the few available (two?) on James Buchanan, often forgotten or if remembered at all, considered the worst President by many polls. Although I would certainly place him in the bottom five, with a significant case indeed to be made for the very worst, I do believe it is too easy to pin that title on Buchanan.

Sometimes career politicians can make effective and even good or great Presidents. Buchanan was a career politician whose ambition reached no lower than the Presidency since the 1820s. In fact, he rather seems like the Ted Cruz of his day: endlessly ambitious, transparently political, personally suspect, and rather disliked by his fellow pols. He definitely doesn't win "nicest human to be President" awards. His Presidency was crippled by his ideology: refusing to get involved with the flashpoints building towards the Civil War. I'm not sure anybody could have stopped the Civil War, but Buchanan simply did nothing as the Union crumbled (he argued the Presidency did not have the power to stop succession even with military force). In many ways, it was simply his turn to be President as a faithful party politician through many Administrations (as well as lingering antagonism towards his chief party rival, Stephen Douglas). Openly favorable to the South, the crisis led to the fracturing of the Democratic Party, which split the vote of the states rights, pro-slavery crowd, and enabled Lincoln to be elected. Perhaps that was his greatest triumph.

Just over 100 pages, this book probably is on par with the American Presidents series, and covers what you need to know about his Presidency, though more personal stories as well as his fuller political life are covered in detail elsewhere.

[Amber Scaife · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part I thought this was a good biography of Buchanan; I have two major quibbles, however: 1) It only really deals with the presidential years, and I'd like a full-life view, and 2) the title is clearly now completely inaccurate.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Buchanan died almost universally despised by the North and the South as an awful President. He's frequently regarded as the worst President in American history, as the title alludes to. In some ways, timing was not kind to him. From George Washington onward, the issue of slavery and holding the country together was a ticking time bomb. Each President passed the hot potato on, and it finally blew up under Buchanan, not entirely through anything he did, but more because of Abraham Lincoln's election. If the Civil War had broken out under Fillmore or Pierce, they probably would have gotten all this heat for being the worst President.

Despite all of that though, Buchanan did do a lot more to earn the title of worst President than just have unfortunate timing. He was spineless, tone deaf, directionless, and a blundering idiot. His proclamation that the Constitution didn't give any State the right to secede, but that it also didn't give Congress any ability to use the military to prevent secession, was among the most universally derided things any President has said in American history. The South hated it. The North hated it. And it essentially sums up why Buchanan was the worst possible fit for the Presidency in this time period. The days of passing the issue to the next generation were over. It was time to take a stand and take action, and he was utterly incapable of doing either.

As far as the book itself, it goes by really quick. It feels more like a bunch of paragraphs glued together than a cohesive book. There are some things I wished the author had said more about. Buchanan's time as Secretary of State under Polk are filled with great stories of Buchanan undermining Polk, and this author didn't really go into them. Buchanan is also believed by many to be the first homosexual President. This idea, which seems to have some fairly strong arguments, was dismissed by the author because Buchanan 'loved men and women but wouldn't marry because he wouldn't surrender himself'. There just seems like there was more to explore there.

[Morgan Flannery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I misread the title of this book as a forecast for the misery I would endure as a reader. That said, in the end, this was a succinct (~130 pages) and entertaining biography, leaving no doubt that the title was appropriate for James B.

Wouldn’t read necessarily outside of the bounds of a Presidential reading challenge, but I was surprisingly entertained by this.

[Gary Webber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book about a terrible president.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Researched, informative, and a lot more entertaining than I anticipated, Mr. Boulard delivers on the promise of his title, depicting the tragicomedy of the Buchanan administration in its full glory. The tragedy was that Buchanan's ineptitude, corruption, and vanity inflamed existing divisions in the country, doomed the Democratic Party to decades out of power, and made the Civil War inevitable. The comedy lay in the vitriol which both the media and Buchanan's political opposition hurled at the veteran Pennsylvania politician, the intensity of which makes "Trump Derangement Syndrome" look like a lovers' spat. His kindest critics called him an imbecile, the rest declared him a traitor. Upon Buchanan's death, the Chicago Tribune rejoiced that the lifelong bachelor produced no children who would be cursed with the burden of his name. I don't think Rachel Maddow would say that about Trump (even if she could).

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a little short and thin on details, but it still provides some interesting insights into James Buchanan. It focuses a lot on the months between Lincoln's election and inauguration, which makes sense as it is in these months that Buchanan's administration is perhaps at its worst.

[Sunny Welker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am still working on my goal of presidential biographies. This was a yawn. What I did find interesting was the politics mimic what's going on now...including the trouble to find a speaker of the house. Now I have to decide which Lincoln biography to read.

[Betty Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author made his case and did a very persuasive job of it.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A bloated mass of political putridity."
- Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens

"When I went to school I read about a man who minded his own business and made a fortune at it."
-President Andrew Jackson, when Buchanan tried to advise him on how to dress

"He never had a guiding principle. During his first fifty years of public life there was no policy that he did not both oppose and support. More than half the years of his public life were devoted to intrigue for his elevation to the Presidency. This desolate old man has gone to his grave. No son or daughter is doomed to acknowledge an ancestry from him."
- Obituary in the Chicago Tribune

In the long slog through C-list presidents, we finally arrive at the one who many historians label the Worst President Ever. There is some stiff competition for that title, but Garry Boulard makes a pretty good case for James Buchanan being, if not the very worst president ever, certainly in the bottom tier. He died after watching his party implode and his policies lead directly to the Civil War. He had no real heirs, and even in his home state of Pennsylvania, mourning was rather pro forma. Today he's remembered, if at all, as the guy who preceded Lincoln.

Was he really that bad?

Well, yeah.

He had some political game and not much else

Buchanan, like many POTUSes, began life as a lawyer. His family was well to do. (To this day, he is the only former president from Pennsylvania. Poor PA.) He began his political career as a Jacksonian Democrat, and was a six-term Congressman and later a Senator. He served as Minister to the UK under Franklin Pierce, as Secretary of State to James Polk, and Minister to Russia under Andrew Jackson.

Most of the presidents he served under were basically awarding him positions for party loyalty, and to get him out of the way. None seemed to really respect him. If there is one positive thing that can be said about Buchanan, it's that he did appear to genuinely respect the Constitution and make decisions based on his interpretation of it. That said, he was a fussy, pusillanimous pedant whose desire to avoid conflicts dragged the country into its very worst conflict.

Personally, Buchanan was a lifelong bachelor (so far, the only US President who never married). As a young man, he was engaged to a rich heiress, who later broke off the engagement and then unexpectedly died. Her father refused to let Buchanan come to her funeral. Buchanan, so far as is known, never had any kind of romantic relationship again...

...unless you believe the speculation that Buchanan might have been our first gay president. This is based on some very thin evidence (which Boulard goes over) that certain "intimate friends" of his were intimate indeed. The main candidate is Alabama Senator William King, with whom he shared a room in Washington as a Congressman. But despite the eagerness with which some historians have latched onto this theory, all we really have to go on are a few ambiguous letters, and some of Buchanan's personal characteristics, which could certainly be described as "effeminate."

Buchanan was a stiff, charmless, humorless man. Boulard relates several anecdotes of him behaving in a manner that can only be described as "cringeworthy." He was, basically, a huge dork. Known for giving wonky, wordy speeches that often left his audience confused, he nonetheless managed to capture the Democratic Party nomination in 1856, as a Northerner with Southern sympathies. He routed Republican candidate John C. Fremont - the Republicans were a new party formed from the ashes of the Whigs and they didn't have their electoral game in place yet. He became the 15th President of the United States at the age of 70, the oldest president yet.

His inaugural address was uninspiring and set the tone for how he would deal with the looming crisis over slavery:

"Most happy would it be for this country if this long agitation were at an end. During the whole progress it has produced no practical good to any human being, whilst it has been the source of great and dangerous evils."

He wasn't complaining about slavery here. He was complaining about the "agitation" over slavery. Basically he wanted the issue to just go away and hoped that a Supreme Court case or two would put it to rest.

His administration in general was at best mediocre and mostly pretty terrible. He supported the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, and lost most of the House to the Republicans in the mid-terms. In 1860, the House launched an investigation known as the Covode Committee, sponsored by Buchanan's enemies seeking impeachment. They found tons of corruption and bribery in the administration but not enough evidence to impeach; Buchanan declared victory.

Buchanan had promised not to seek reelection and he didn't, but in the final days of his presidency, he would face the beginning of the secession crisis, triggered by the election of Abraham Lincoln.

Was the Civil War Buchanan's Fault

The last few presidential biographies I've read have placed some of the blame for the Civil War on each of them, going all the way back to Andrew Jackson, but I've become convinced that the Civil War was more or less inevitable and nothing any POTUS might have done would have prevented it. Different choices might have changed the timeline, maybe shortened it, and I suppose there are some alternate histories where a president actually lets the Confederation secede. But I've been pretty wary of putting the blame for the Civil War on any one man.

Well, I still think the Civil War was probably inevitable, but I was persuaded by this book that if any president could possibly have prevented it (or at least turned it into a brief insurrection, swiftly quelled), it was James Buchanan, and Buchanan instead failed to do a damn thing except wring his hands.

When Lincoln was elected, multiple Southern states immediately declared their intention to secede, and the flashpoint became South Carolina, and Fort Sumter.

Boulard argues that had Buchanan taken a firm stand against secession, and been willing to send troops immediately, then instead of a four-year civil war, we might have had some pitched battles and a lot of seething resentment. Maybe the South would have tried to break away anyway, but it took a certain critical mass for them to be willing to do it, and a federal inertia that let them know they could get away with it, and Buchanan provided this with his indecisive hand-wringing.

On Lincoln's election, as his Southern supporters and northern allies both waited eagerly for him to weigh in on the threat of secession, Buchanan consulted with his Attorney General to determine whether the Constitution did, in fact, give states the right to secede. Their joint conclusion was essentially that there was no such Constitutional right, but neither did the federal government have the Constitutional right to prevent them!

In an absolutely miserable speech, Buchanan delivered this opinion, which angered everyone on all sides. As New York Senator William Seward said, Buchanan's message was essentially, "That no state has the right to secede unless it wishes to," and that "It is the president's duty to enforce the law, unless somebody opposes him."

South Carolina would soon fire on Fort Sumter. Most of Buchanan's cabinet would leave (some of them resigning even before he was out of office), including his longtime friend Jefferson Davis, and join the Confederacy. Buchanan cordially welcomed Lincoln to the White House on Inauguration Day, and then retired to his home in Pennsylvania, where he would watch the war unfold, still hoping the North would offer the Confederation peace terms. He would later become the first president to write a presidential memoir, Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, in which he sought to vindicate himself, as he was sure history would. It was panned in reviews.

Best bio about the worst president?

I'll be honest, I chose Garry Boulard's book both for its spicy title and because it was short. I've trudged through thick biographies of other President Who?s and I just wasn't feeling it for James "Why Won't (Arguments About) Slavery Just Go Away?" Buchanan.

Boulard writes almost entirely about Buchanan's presidency, with only a brief sketch of his early life and career. But in this short book he does capture Buchanan's personality pretty well, as well as make his argument for Buchanan indeed being the worst president ever. Now there are a few on the list I haven't gotten to yet, but while I'm still not convinced that even a more competent president could have actually prevented the Civil War, it's clear that Buchanan all but guaranteed it, and being as generally useless as he was in all other respects, I'm inclined to agree with Boulard's judgement. If like me, you are proceeding through the entire list of presidents, this book is probably your best best for understanding Buchanan, unless you really want to get into the weeds with "the Old Public Functionary."

[Clem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anytime I read a biography of a president, or any political figure, I try to find one that’s fairly objective. I don’t like reading authors who fawn over their subjects because of their unwavering loyalty as they constantly excuse their subject from any wrongdoing they may have committed. Nor do I enjoy mud-slinging books that take the opposite approach. With a title that contains the wording ‘The Worst President’ in describing its subject, it might lead one to believe that this is an example of the latter to the extreme. Therefore, I was a bit cautious and skeptical. History, however, tells us that Buchanan is constantly ranked near the bottom of the barrel, so I went into this one with an open mind. Fortunately, I didn’t find this book littered with nastiness and vitriol towards the subject matter. It seemed a very fair account of…..well… the worst president ever.

This book was fairly brief – under 200 pages of actual reading material. I’m fairly convinced, though, that the ‘lesser’ presidents don’t necessarily need long tomes. For presidents who were somewhat inconsequential that served in a time where resource material is harder to accumulate, such a reflection serves as more of an assistance than a hindrance. This book was well written and kept my attention.

History tells us that the period of U.S. History from about 1840-1860 was at its most turbulent. The main issue was slavery. It’s pointless to go into all of the different arguments and legislation that was passed during the time, but the times were so tempestuous, that new political parties seemed to be being birthed and dying on a regular basis because of all the infighting (example: Google ‘Whig Party’). The leaders of the country knew that without constant haggling back and forth, the country was destined to split in two and lead to war. Therefore, the main goals of most of the presidents during this time was to keep compromising and therefore avoid war.

Except Buchanan.

Not only was Buchanan happy with prolonging slavery, but he came up with ridiculous statements such as “The South can’t secede because it’s unconstitutional, but if they do, the federal government isn’t allowed to do anything to stop it.” That’s like telling a criminal that murder is wrong, but if they do kill someone, they need not worry about going to jail. Buchanan’s entire administration seems to indicate that when things got bad, he would simply lock himself in a room filled with accoutrements of the rich and famous and then close his eyes and hope the whole problem would just go away. I’m reminded of the fable of Nero fiddling while Rome burned.

You know it’s a bad sign when a brand-new political party (the Republicans) manage to knock you out of office after your first term, but also go on to win the presidential race for the next five elections because of the stain you’ve left behind. I still maintain that it’s a bit of a stretch to say that Buchanan ‘caused’ the U.S. Civil War. I’m convinced he expedited the process, but, sadly, its event was inevitable. You can only stretch a rubber band so far before it eventually snaps.

Maybe, in a bizarre sense, it was good that Buchanan came along when he did. More compromises and more prolonging of the inevitable really never did much good. The country was still in a bitter dispute with anger, and mud-slinging was everywhere. And slavery still went on. So reading a book about the man and the times really isn’t all that surprising. If anything, it gives you hope that the country can prevail in dark times.

[Russ Grossman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book number 25 through my reading of presidential biographies, this one was satisfactory. I knew it was short and likely not expansive, but it mainly got the job done. Boulard focused mainly on Buchanan's presidency, but there were some small parts about his early life and prior political experience. He never married, but had a young love that didn't work out. Apparently this killed whatever romantic interest he might have had in life. Buchanan was more successful in previous positions such as those under Andrew Jackson and James Polk. His presidency was pretty disappointing, and while he was a decent, experienced politician, he just couldn't get the job done. The South was ready to secede and he wasn't strong enough to stand up to them. He mainly graciously accepted Lincoln, but was too focused on his earlier life and bitter about his own public opinion. He died with no heirs and to a country that was mainly cold to him.

Boulard did a decent job of explaining all this, but I suspect there just isn't enough personal information available to make this guy any deeper. There's a new Buchanan biography coming out next year, so maybe that will make him worth re-visiting. Oddly enough, this title isn't accurate anymore - Buchanan is no longer the worst president!

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Operation Read Every President's Biography #15

"Such a perfect imbecile never held office before."

If the title doesn't make it starkly clear, poor ol' fuddy-headed Buchanan has long been considered one of, if not the, worst President ever to sit in the White House. Boulard's book is unabashedly unapologetic and is a brief, sharp reminder of why. Most of it has to do with Buchanan's waffling over the issues of slavery and secession and his poor turn when South Carolina starts threatening to secede (he basically went before the American people and said he couldn't prevent secession, so we better get used to it thereby robbing his office of any power whatsoever). Basically, he was a poor decision-maker who had no business wielding such power. Buchanan, who seems to have had no understanding of political issues like slavery simply wished that they would quietly go away. A complete moron in state affairs, this is the focus of this book. There's a little biographical material, his life was largely uninteresting and awkward. He never married and though Boulard addresses the possibility, long-held, that Buchanan was gay, he dismisses the idea.
Short but sharp!

[Jeremy Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Were it not for the insurrection of January 6, 2021 and the months and the years of White House lies preceding it, Garry Boulard’s book about the Worst President might seem quaint and irrelevant, falling to a two or three star book as a result. It is, after all, riddled with mistakes that clearly lacked an editor and showed Boulard was doing most of this work alone. Nevertheless, I found myself largely compelled by reading of a man so aloof to the violent realities of his nation that he let it slowly but surely sink into a Civil War that might have been curtailed by even the mildest of military force in the treasonous rebellion of South Carolina, before Lincoln even took the Oath of Office. Nevertheless, in the aftermath of January 6, 2021, history seems certain to note a different name behind the adjectives that once preceded Buchanan.

[Isaac · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my 9th presidential biography and it definitely stands out for the way it occasionally jumps to different eras in order to weave in some autobiographical elements from the author, put the evaluation of JB in perspective and ruminate a bit on statistics and rankings themselves.

Buchanan had a long career in government before he was president and his life is good for coloring in all those years of forgettable presidents between Jackson and Lincoln. Also the Buchanan eye view of the run up to the civil war was informative.

Unlike most presidential biographies this book is a quick read, and it still managed to be entertaining and pack in a lot of information.

[Charles Dusenbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

It Was The Worst of Times

It certainly was not the best of times. And what would you have done were you the president during those last few years, few months, few days before the Union was rent asunder? Would your administration be strongly abolitionist or strongly a states rights defender? Or would you hope against hope that somehow a politically middle of the road approach would molify slave holders and slave shelterers.

This book gives the reader a real sense and feel of the times just prior to the start of the Civil War. It fills in many blanks; blanks that were soon filled with gunpowder and bullets.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do agree with the author that in terms of success in the office of the Presidency Buchanan ranks dead last. He did have some successes prior to his becoming president or he would not have been president. However, his approach to the slavery issue doomed the US to embark on a bloody Civil War. The book made a good case for Buchanan being the worst President, but also added a bit fluff to fill the book out. Some of the asides made sense others such as comparing Buchanan to modern presidents seemed a bit silly.

[Victor Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good presentation with a lot of interesting historical information. I wish I could rank it higher, but it suffers from a pretty wandering narrative. It often flips from the topic James Buchanan to the sub-subject of the task of ranking presidents overall. Both are important, but the constant flipping makes it hard to keep the narrative of James Buchanan together mentally as you also contend with all this side trips into why rating presidents is difficult. They are both fascinating subjects, but flipping between them is mentally tiring.

[Kenneth Lund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great book. After reading this, I still think Andrew Johnson wins the title of worst president by a fair bit with Buchanan running second. It is too soon, too fresh, and too heavily politicized to determine where Trump stacks up with Buchanan, but Johnson, in my view, is undisputedly the worst. America can just be grateful Johnson did not have a Twitter account. This is a very quick read and casts Buchanan as vain, feckless, and not particularly principle-driven. The book sacrifices depth for brevity.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enlightening view into the Buchanan presidency

This book was both appalling and reassuring — we have had some very bad presidents. Buchanan’s corruption and refusal to consider a nation without slavery made him an ineffective president at a time when the US really needed a leader. The book was well written, engaging, and kind of horrifying.

[Sarah Arntson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short, easy-to-read biography of James Buchanan that seemed to mostly focus on his time as president. Overall, the book was well written, so I gave it four stars. However, I feel as though with a title like, "The Worst President," the author could have done a better job convincing me that Buchanan was in fact the worst president. Because after reading, I'm not convinced.

[Ernie Elsner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story of a much despised president

Limited information on his early life and political path. I expected confirmation of he was gay but there was only inferences. Detail of his presidential years was informative. For someone with little knowledge of him I would recommend reading this book.

[Paul Day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being only 128 pages, this is more of a paper than a book. The author effectively presents Buchanan's lack of leadership during critical points leading up to the Civil War. A better book would have included the weak leadership of each of the presidents following Polk through Buchanan's term in office and how they contributed to the US' inability to resolve the issue of slavery.

[Robert DeChellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was a very informative biography of a President of whom I knew nothing. His administration encompassing the initial stages of secession in 1864, found itself in a no win situation I do not think anyone could have saved the union. Sounds like he did throw some great parties, though!!!
Bobby D

[Matt Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good biography of a terrible president.
The author is pretty even-handed, giving Buchanan credit where it seems due, and pointing out some very poor leadership. It’s well-written and gives a good sense of Buchanan the president and the man, along with an understanding of his time.

[Ginger Zimmerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book!

I have never really read much on the presidency of James Buchanan… so, this was a great book that helped me to understand his tenure in office a little bit as well as understand why there is such angst against him!

[Alex Stephenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hardly even a book, not especially well-written and certainly not a straight-up biography. Interesting enough information, but even the worst of U.S. presidents have stories that deserve more in-depth tellings than this.

[Daniel DeLappe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Quick and to the point. Worst President? For him time, yes, but he has nothing on the last four.

[Larry R. Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Resting on your laurels.

This book points out the perils of electing an old man to the office of the presidency. Very well written.